Zadekpedia

Ask BobAsk a question of every episode, 2009–2023 — answers cite the minute

COVID-19 Lockdowns

7 min read

Part of Health and medicine.

Start here

Every episode (3)

Who argued it

Carol Roth · Daniel Dew · Robert C. Wright

Eminent Domain · Economic Freedom · Federal Reserve · Property Rights · Separation of Powers · Constitutional Law · Rent Seeking · Crony Capitalism

Background: Lockdowns

Economic consequences and the “money vs. life” dichotomy

In a May 2020 episode, John Tamny, identified as editor of RealClearMarkets, vice president at FreedomWorks, and an author, argued with host Bob Zadek that the “money vs. life” dichotomy is false because economic growth is essential for health and longevity. Tamny contended that decentralized market wisdom and individual freedom are superior to the centralized planning of experts, which he said disproportionately harms the working class while favoring the “managerial class.” John Tamny on Experts vs. the Wisdom of Markets (2020)

Carol Roth, in an August 2021 episode, described the government mantra “We are all in this together” as “the big gaslighting lie.” She said that about a third of the economy was locked down, mostly by mandate, and that the burden almost entirely fell on small businesses. Roth argued that if Walmart, Target, or Amazon had been locked down, or if the Fed had not propped up the stock market, the lockdowns would not have lasted even two weeks. She said those with power got a “golden ticket” and a “free pass,” and in many cases were getting dollars directly from the small businesses that were shut down. Carol Roth on the War on Small Business (2021)

The 1918 pandemic comparison

In an August 2020 episode, Ron Jones told Charlie Deist that the average length of a shutdown or severe restrictions during the 1918 pandemic was from about two and a half weeks to six weeks. The two and a half weeks would have been more on the military camp side because of the close quarters of the soldiers. In Los Angeles, the peak period went from September 22nd to February 6th, and school closures ran from October 11th to December 2nd, then again from December 10th, with schools starting to open on January 6th and the final school opening on February 6th. San Francisco shut down on September 23rd and was basically open by February 1st, with schools shut down from October 18th to November 25th. Seattle’s peak period was from October 5th to December 31st, and its schools shut down from October 6th to November 14th. Jones summarized that it was weeks, if not days, but not four, five, six months, 12 months. Back to School: A History Lesson from the 1918 Pandemic (2020)

Deist noted that the age differential in terms of who COVID tends to target seems like a major difference from the 1918 pandemic, which seemed to disproportionately affect old people and leave the young relatively unscathed. He said he read a statistic that it is in the vicinity of one in a million young people or children. Jones said that if we are waiting for no infections at schools, we might as well keep the school shut down for at least another year. He warned that locking children in a machine all day could lead to higher levels of obesity, more joint problems, more back pain, and that without quality physical education they will not know what to do to take care of themselves. Back to School: A History Lesson from the 1918 Pandemic (2020)

Lockdowns and the Constitution

In an August 2020 episode, Robert C. Wright told Bob Zadek that Hamilton called the Constitution a frail and worthless fabric because it is just a set of words, and that Hamilton feared those words could be manipulated. Wright said the mistake the Founders made was in not enumerating economic rights in the Constitution, and that what they could never conceive of was losing essentially all of those unenumerated economic rights, like the right to work being foremost among those. Zadek added freedom of contract. Wright said the sea change that happened is still happening and has been accelerated by the lockdowns, which looked very much like the dekulakization of America. Zadek explained that the reference is to Stalin, who took all the independent farmers and confiscated their land and took away all of their economic freedom. Wright said that when the U.S. was founded, we were a nation of proprietors, a nation of shopkeepers and artisans and farmers, and almost everyone owned their own business. The Decline of American Independence (2020)

Economic fallacies of pandemic policymakers

In a November 2021 episode, Ryan Bourne told Bob Zadek that a lockdown should be thought of as a bundle of different regulations, including the closure of so-called non-essential businesses, school closures, and in many states stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders, as well as numerous other restrictions. He cited the Governor of Michigan banning people from buying non-essential items within stores that sold essential goods. Bourne said that ideally we would approach this by looking at the marginal benefits and marginal costs of each individual regulation and how they interact. He said his instinct, looking at the data and numerous studies, is that on the margin, lockdowns probably did lead to less disease transmission and fewer deaths than would have occurred without them, but that this is not a slam dunk in favor of supporting them. Ryan Bourne on the Economic Fallacies of the Pandemic Policymakers (2021)

Bourne argued that people have overestimated the benefits of lockdowns by comparing outcomes from epidemiological models if we lock down against what would happen if we just did not react to the virus at all, which he called an absurd comparison. He said the correct comparison is against all the other voluntary forms of mitigation, such as testing, masking, and businesses investing in means of operating more safely. On the cost side, he said looking only at the downturn in GDP is incredibly simplistic, because there are lots of values of things we lost that are not priced in markets, such as being forced to miss a grandparent’s funeral. He also cited longer-term costs such as over a year and a half in some cases of lost schooling on potential lifetime earnings, and longer-term costs on entrepreneurship. Ryan Bourne on the Economic Fallacies of the Pandemic Policymakers (2021)

Across episodes

The episodes show the same question argued across four episodes: whether the lockdowns were a proportionate response to the pandemic or a wealth transfer that harmed small businesses and the working class. John Tamny in May 2020 framed the issue as a false dichotomy between money and life, while Carol Roth in August 2021 described the “all in this together” mantra as a gaslighting lie and said the burden fell on small businesses. Ron Jones in August 2020 provided historical comparison showing 1918 shutdowns lasted weeks rather than months, and Robert C. Wright in August 2020 framed the lockdowns as accelerating the loss of unenumerated economic rights. Ryan Bourne in November 2021 offered a more measured cost-benefit framework, saying lockdowns probably did have some public health benefits on the margin but that these were nowhere near as big as suggested and that longer-term costs were ignored.

Backlinks